Rhizome Partners With Electronic Arts Intermix After Vimeo Censoring – Artforum

Rhizome has announced a pilot program to offer artist and partner channels on video.rhizome.org (VRO), a self-hosted video platform. The program took shape after Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) was censored by Vimeo in May of this year. Rhizome and EAI worked together to migrate more than 3,000 artist videos from EAI’s 5,000 strong collection, which are now available via the open-source streaming tool PeerTube. To celebrate this transition, Rhizome and EAI hosted “Trust & Safety,” a screening and conversation, on November 10. According to a press release, the event addressed the challenges faced “by organizations entrusted with preserving artworks that test cultural, technological, and institutional limits.” “Trust & Safety” featured a screening of work by Peggy Ahwesh, Alex Bag, Ellen Cantor, Barbara Hammer, and Muntadas, artists selected in response to Vimeo’s content moderation policies. After the screening, Rebecca Cleman, executive director of EAI, and Michael Connor, executive director of Rhizome, spoke about the legacy of queer experimental media, how arts organizations build and maintain their own distribution systems, and how PeerTube can support the circulation of work today. “Digital art shouldn’t be beholden to commercial platforms whose priorities can shift overnight,” Connor said in a press release. “video.rhizome.org is expanding
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